Ben Carson Is Obsessed with Making Sure Affordable Housing Is Uncomfortable

The doctor has some pretty terrible ideas for how the country should handle housing and urban development.

When Donald Trump announced that noted surgeon and former presidential candidate Ben Carson would be running the Department of Housing and Urban Development, it was an odd choice. Carson has no professional experience in the field, and though he did grow up poor, he's also a famed exaggerator when it comes to his own history. I mean, this is the guy who possibly made up a story about nearly stabbing his friend as a means of showing how much he's matured. No matter how you looked at it, it was hard not to come to the conclusion that Donald Trump picked Carson to run HUD because he's one of Trump's few black friends.

But now a Carson-run HUD is no longer theoretical, as we're starting to get an actual glimpse into what exactly his plans for affordable housing are in this country. The results? Well, they're weird. You see, Ben Carson has been on a tour of facilities for low-income Americans, and he seemed absolutely obsessed with something the whole time. It wasn't finding a way to house more people. It wasn't hearing people's stories and responding compassionately. No, according to a new report from The New York Times, Carson was obsessed with making sure this housing wasn't too nice.

Ben Carson does not like the creature comforts, at least not for
low-income Americans reliant on the government for a helping hand.

As he toured facilities for the poor in Ohio last week, Mr. Carson,
the neurosurgeon-turned-housing secretary, joked that a relatively
well-appointed apartment complex for veterans lacked “only pool
tables.” He inquired at one stop whether animals were allowed. At yet
another, he nodded, plainly happy, as officials explained how they had
stacked dozens of bunk beds inside a homeless shelter and purposefully
did not provide televisions.

Does that seem unnecessarily cruel to anyone else? Like really? We live in a country that treats our veterans like shit, and yet rich-as-hell Ben Carson wants to make snide jokes about poor Americans having too much? This is as stupid as it is heartless. And sure, if Ben were here, he'd probably make a joke about being a brain surgeon, not a heart surgeon, but that's only because Ben's corny as hell and has a garbage sense of humor:

At a supportive housing center for drug addicts in Lancaster, Ohio,
Trisha Farmer, the chief executive of the Recovery Center, pleaded for
more federal help to house recovering addicts.

Mr. Carson interjected. “We are talking about incentivizing those who
help themselves,” he said, before again asking minutes later about how
comfortable the facility was letting people get.

This is what we're dealing with. A person actually working with people in need makes a case for needing funding, and Ben Carson just wants to make sure THESE RECOVERING DRUG ADDICTS AREN'T TOO COZY, MANNNNNN! It feels gross, because it is gross. I'm starting to think hiring an unqualified revisionist to run HUD might be a bad idea.